Turbomeca Eyes New Family of Heavy-Lift Engines

Turbomeca plans by year’s end to begin integrating advanced components for a technology demonstrator intended to support development of a new family of 3,000-shaft-horsepower-class turboshaft engines for heavy helicopters. It said at the Paris Air Show that the TECH3000 demonstrator has validated some compressor technologies and “tests of a combustion chamber and turbine are underway.” It added that TECH3000-based engines “will deliver a 25 percent improvement in fuel efficiency” compared to today’s state-of-the-art powerplants while reducing the environmental footprint of new, 20,000-pound-class rotorcraft.